Constitution
=The Constitution of The Order= Preamble We, the Seniors of The Order hereby ratify this Constitution to act as our governmental structure to organize ourselves, ensure that people in The Order know their job, and to create a very openly democratic organization, run by the people, for the people. This also may be confusing, but there was nothing in life saying that anything wouldn't be confusing. Ladies, and Gentlemen, the Constitution of The Order. Government Structure Article 1: The Senate The Senate is the leadership council of the Order. Appointments to vacant Senate seats are decided by unanimous agreement within the Senate. Senators are the final authority on matters pertaining to their position. However, should an abuse of power/authority arise, a unanimous agreement by the remaining Senators can over-turn a ruling. Each Senator may appoint up to two (2) Senate Consultants (SC) to assist in his or her duties. One SC should be designated as a 'Primary', and one a 'Secondary'. The Primary SC's vote will be counted in the absence of the Senator. These decisions are up to the Senator. If a Senator cannot perform his/her duties because of planned prolonged absence, then the primary SC can be appointed as “Standing Senator” until the Senator can take up his/her duties once more. In this case, the Secondary SC becomes the primary SC to the Standing Senator, and no Second SC must be appointed. * Legislative Senator**: He/she shall be in charge of updating and checking the constitution and rules, including managing complaints and looking for solutions. Also, he/she maintains the web site. His/her job is to improve the website, update the website (except the Members' List), and anything else dealing directly with the website. He/she is also accountable for keeping the constitution and law current with the latest additions made by the Senate. * Administrative Senator**: He/she will be responsible for keeping members of the Order informed. The Admin Senator is also responsible for keeping a record of all bills that are presented to the Senate. He/she will keep an updated email address for all members of the Order, and attempt to correct those that are incorrect. He/she will be in charge of membership. His/her job is to keep track of new members and dismiss those that are in violation with the rules and ethics maintained in the Order. He/she will coordinate with the Website Senator to ensure the members' list is updated and accurate. * Senate Board Director:** He/she shall act as the Board Director. His/her job is to start and maintain a message board to allow for easily flowing communications among our members. He/she will appoint Board Cops to insure that the board is a mature and flame/spam free environment. Article 2: The General Assembly The general assembly consists of the rest of the Order. Though they have no general voting power, they are free to submit suggestions to the Senate, and ask for a vote. Article 3: Voting Procedures Voting should be considered an open forum. Whenever the need for new legislation arrives, a Senator or Senate Consultant should make the legislation available through the appropriate forum (mark it clearly as a Bill or Measure requiring a vote) to all members of the Senate. From this time, the Senate shall have 96 hours (4 days) to discuss the issue. Ideas and replies should be sent to all in the Senate, so that hopefully an agreement in the best interests of the Order can be reached. During replies, Senators and SCs should state whether they are voting "Yes" or "No". A Senator may vote yes, but also suggest possible changes. At the end of the 96 hours, the votes are counted. The requirement to pass legislature is 66% voting 'Yes'. All votes for bans must have to be Majority (51%, except voting on a permanent ban, that must be a 2/3 majority). Should any senators be inactive or away, and their consultants cannot be reached for the vote, the remaining senators are to be considered as being the whole of the senate. Law of the Citizens (General Assembly) These laws are hereby used to judge the General Assembly of The Order. Failure to follow these rules are subject to * Warning * Temporary Ban * Permanent Ban If a rule is broken, an Orderite may be warned by any member of the Board Admin Structure. Once a third warning is announced, the Senate and/or Board Senator will decide on the severity of the charges, and then decide what type of ban should be put in place. Preamble We, the Senate of The Order hereby ratify this Constitution to act as our board administration structure to organize the board cops. We hereby ratify the fact that the board administration is an individual ruling part of the Order, only to be interfered with by the ruling body in case of emergency. These rules may seem long, but only Section 1 is of any real consequence to the regulars of the board. Section 2 has been written for clarification and for setting rules for the board administrators. Section 1- Board Rules Article 1 Zero Tolerance Rules. Rules that are enforced more strictly, will lead to strikes. Definitions: * Excessive and unwelcome spamming, especially spamming of links and repeated, similar remarks. * Flaming, baiting and trolling. * Cross-site trolling or inciting cross-forum wars. * Promoting or linking to illegal or server-rules-breaking activities/websites, including but not limited to: drugs, warez, pornography, torture sites. "NSFW" tags are not meaningful to this rule. We assume self-regulation from sites like Youtube so links there are not moderated, with the noted exception of linking clearly illegal material (such as full films cut up into parts). * "Double-posting" in the sense of posting two separate replies in one thread where you can use the edit function instead. * Spamming threads marked "do not spam", such as the senate announcement and achievement petition threads. Article 2 Don’t be a jerk. Common sense rules, stick to these until you know the community better. Definitions: * Cluttering up the forum with excessive or useless posts. * Intentionally insulting a person with a remark about race, gender, beliefs, etc. * Spoiling movies, books, or anything else, without giving a clear warning. * Cheating in the Achievement System by using Achievements in your signature that haven't been officially appointed to you by the Committee. This is primarily dealt with within the Achievement System itself, but continued misuse will be construed as attempts at trolling. * Making an unjustified quote pyramid (quote inside quote inside quote and so on). * Derailing topics that clearly still have the main subject going strong. Article 3 Abide by the rules of proper conduct. Rules of proper conduct are not enforced on the same level as the above, but are meant to guide you to find your place in our community. Only repeated, consistent breaking of these rules will lead to strikes. Definitions: * Profanity in the subject line or excessive profanity in the message. * Badly written posts are discouraged, but we understand if it's not your first language. We're less friendly towards an excessive use of l33t talk. l33t talk not only includes writing in l33t (i.e. "ph34r m3 f0r 1 4m l33t") in a non-joking way, but also includes using internet shorthand ("u" instead of "you"). * This is an English language forum. Posts in other languages will be removed. * Intentionally calling attention to yourself, for instance by whining about your life or derailing a thread to talk about yourself. * Whining about other posters. If you have a problem with someone, take it up with him in PMs or notify a moderator. * Talking back to moderators. As a rule, we're not joking when we tell you to do something. If you disagree with a mod's actions or strikes, take it up with the moderator himself or his superior through private messages. Article 4 Ignorance of the rules is no excuse to break them. * If you break the rules and are warned or banned, "I don't know the rules" does not count as an excuse. * Intent is important, but stops being an excuse on repeated offenses. Definition of Punishment Warnings Usually, a warning is given for breaking a rule, and three warnings constitute a ban. A warning is usually forgiven after one month of good behavior on the board, or may be forgiven by any Forum Administrator as long as it isn't countered by another Forum Administrator higher in the chain of command. Banning Board Cops can ban a person with immediate effect for up to two (2) weeks, with or without three warnings. The decision to ban a person may always be over ruled by a higher person in the chain of command. A person can only be temp-banned by board cops once within a 2 month period. If a board cop feels it is necessary to temporarily ban someone a second time as a punitive measure, he must request for this ban with the Board Director or Board Director Consultant, who have the right to temporarily ban a person unilaterally with the 2 month period. The Board Director and his Consultant can permanently ban without consulting the Senate before banning, but must consult the Senate after the banning. A Senate vote can be called at all times to recall these decisions. All bans must be noted inside the Senate’s Board and posted in the thread where the poster was banned. Unbanning The Board Director or Board Director Consultant may unban a person. When a person feels he/she was banned unjustly he/she should contact the Board Director or in the Forum Senator's absence the Forum Senate Consultant. Section 2 - Forum Administration Chain of command (The Senate) | Senate Board Director | Senate Board Director Consultant | Board Cops/Moderators Senate decisions The Senate is the ruling body of the Order. Usually, Forum Administration is done by the Forum Administrators, but in some cases, the Senate may feel obliged to step in. The Senate has the power to ban or unban a person with a 51% vote. Appointing Board Cops Only the Board Director can appoint or fire Board Cops, unless the Senate steps in. Firing Board Cops Whenever one of the Board Cops steps out of line by disobeying rules, he receives a warning from one of those higher in the chain of command. This warning is dropped after 3 months of good behaviour. If a Board Cop has 3 warnings he/she must be relieved from duty. Section 3 - Last Note The Senate reserves the right to edit the rules at any time of their choosing. This will be announced on the board, but ignorance of the rules only because they changed is not excused. Section 4 - Glossary of Terms For all clarity here is a small glossary: * Ban: To block someone's IP from the board. This may only be undone by the Senate Board Director, the Senate or a waiting time of the ban. * Forum Admin: The Senator and SCs who may ban/unban, warn, appoint Board Cops and makes changes to the board. * Board Cop: A subset of the Forum Admin; a Moderator. They may ban and warn people. * Warning: 3 warnings result in banning.